Experiment
by eljesso
Summary: PMD2: A quick look into the meeting of Grovyle/Celebi and the Hero in the future, including the Hero's origin at the ruined Temporal Tower and some subsequent shenanigans before going to the past.


She crashed through the forest, brambles and frozen branches tearing at uncovered skin.  
 _You're making too much noise!_ She cried at herself, _They'll find you and-!_  
Aloud, she let slip a terrified squeak as she missed the path and tumbled down toward the forest floor.  
 _Idiot! Get up! Get away!  
_ She hit the floor and rolled to her feet unsteadily, frantically scrabbling up the other side of the jagged valley. She made it to the top, flinging an arm over the lip and dragging herself upright. Behind her, in the everlasting dark, she could hear the Sableye tracking her and when she stole a desperate glance behind her, she could even make out their diamond eyes glinting.  
How could she see that? No natural light existed here.  
Glancing around frantically, she spotted a bobbing orb flitting through the trees ahead of her. She turned for it.  
 _Help! Help help help!_ She cried at it silently, _Let it be the rebels, let it be-!  
_ A figure fell into step beside her, lithe and keeping pace tirelessly. She recognised him as Grovyle, right hand man of Celebi, the leader of the rebels. He nudged her arm, and the light veered right in response. She followed him, and he followed the light.  
 _Thank Arceus! I'm sav-!  
_ A dark orb flew out of the darkness and careened into her back. She tumbled head over heels, narrowly missing Grovyle, who skidded to a stop. The light stopped too, bobbing in place as if anxious. Grovyle stared as the human began shuddering, great waves of pulsing dark energy washing over her. He recognised the attack instantly: Dusknoir had been sent to take back the prisoner.  
 _Retreat_ , his inner tactician said, _Leave the human, it's not worth it_.  
 _She can be useful_ , Celebi's voice interrupting his thoughts, _she could give us vital information about the Tower!  
_ Grovyle tuned her out, thinking quickly. He couldn't take down Dusknoir and several Sableye on his own, and he couldn't risk Celebi getting captured too. Someone else could be trained to do what he could do but she-  
 _My dear Grovyle! I am as replaceable as you think you are, and you are as important as you think I am_ , Celebi interrupted again.  
 _Don't let them think that_ , Grovyle thought to her silently as Dusknoir floated out from the trees. He wore a triumphant smirk, and gave a high pitched whistle.  
 _The Sableye are coming to get us and I'm going to let them. You get out of here, I'll do some recon inside the tower and you can come get me in an hour_ , Grovyle thought to her quickly, as he tried to act like he was cornered, _I'll also bring the human_.  
The light bobbed once, then went out.  
'Looks like the cavalry has fled,' Dusknoir laughed. He clicked his fingers and the Sableye swarmed over the human like ants, reefing her arms behind her till her shoulders cracked and lashing together her wrists and ankles. Grovyle put up enough of a fight to not seem suspicious, but not enough to make Dusknoir enter the scuffle. He let himself be led by the Sableye, Dusknoir half-carrying, half-dragging the semi-conscious human.  
The prisoners were brought to Temporal Tower, or at least, what little was left of the crumbling structure. They were led down a bleak corridor with periodic sconces, each bearing a weak candle flame. Dusknoir stopped outside a narrow door at a crossroads and knocked twice impatiently.  
It was opened almost immediately by an imposing Hypno wearing a grubby lab coat and goggles.  
'Ah, Lord Dusknoir! I trust the experiment has been...?' He spotted the human hanging limply under Dusknoir's arm.  
'Very good, sir! Bring it in! Bring it in!'  
Dusknoir entered with the human, leaving the door ajar. Grovyle tried to look into the little room, but the Sableye kept him back.  
'Now, now! Open those eyes! We missed so much while you were away!'  
Grovyle kicked the largest of his guards down the hall, and glared at the others till they backed down, then peered round the edge of the door.  
The human was bound to a rusty wrought-iron chair, her head down and face screwed up.  
The Hypno looked exasperated, the way a well-meaning parent might look at a misbehaving child.  
Dusknoir stood to one side, his arms folded, watching curiously.  
The Hypno cupped the human's chin, forcing her head up and swinging his pendulum in front of her face, even though her eyes were still closed.  
Grovyle saw the human squint at where Hypno was, then spat in his face. He howled with rage, and then with pain as the human kicked him in the chest and toppled the chair, pulling her wrists free of the metal. Grovyle could easily see how she had gotten out last time, but Dusknoir hadn't been present when she'd escaped. He blasted her almost off her feet, but she still stumbled desperately for the door. The Hypno blocked her path, and she looked up without thinking, unable to fight off his mental attack. The Hypno's eyes glowed a bright purple and the human froze, their own eyes glowing faintly.  
'That's quite enough of _that_ ,' Hypno sighed, straightening his coat, 'Now, pick up the chair and _sit. down_.'  
Grovyle had never seen anyone move with as much sass as the human, who stalked over to the chair and kicked it upright, flinging herself into it and folding her arms. Her face twitched as she struggled to throw off the hypnosis, but the scientist clearly had her under control now.  
'Thank you, Lord Dusknoir, you can go. I will have Master Dialga's report ready as soon as possible.'  
Dusknoir gave a curt nod and left the room without a word, pulling the door closed behind him. He had almost forgotten Grovyle was still there.  
'You two,' He ordered, pointing at the two largest guards, 'Take him to Interrogation Room 2, I'll have one of the other lackeys meet you there. The rest of you, you're off duty.'  
The other Sableye shuffled off smugly, laughing at the two leading Grovyle between them cautiously, the largest of which taking the front with as much decorum as his bruised pride could muster. Grovyle left with them placidly enough, but he had no intention of meeting the 'lackey.' No doubt Dusknoir was going to organise a 'scientist' with a more violent approach to information retrieval. He waited until they were a few corridors away from Dusknoir and that horrible narrow door before he took out his guards. They never stood a chance.  
Leaving them where they fell, he moved back the way they'd come, listening carefully in case Dusknoir had decided to follow. He hadn't.  
Grovyle approached the door cautiously, he had to catch the Hypno by surprise or-  
The door suddenly opened as he approached, and he quickly ducked down a side corridor, which was more of a side wall, most of the corridor collapsed. He heard a shuffling of papers and a low mutter as the Hypno walked straight past his hiding place.  
He couldn't wait too long, for the Hypno was heading towards where he'd left his Sableye guards. He walked quickly up to the door, testing the handle. It swung open surprisingly easily, revealing the questionably stained tiles and the human sitting listlessly in the chair.  
Wires ran from little gel pads on her head and chest to monitors mounted halfway up the walls. Only one was on, and seemed to be monitoring basic life signs, like heartbeat.  
Her eyes still glowed a faint purple, but it seemed to be fading the further away, he assumed, the Hypno was moving.  
'Uh, can you hear me?' He said as he approached her. She twitched slightly but it was like she couldn't focus. He waved a hand in front of her face and her eyes snapped to it, the last of the purple glow fading away. She blinked hard a few times and finally seemed to be aware of her surroundings. The heart rate monitor sped up slightly.  
'Listen, we gotta get out of here before-' Grovyle quickly took an instinctive step back as the human leant to one side and retched.  
'S-sorry...' she stuttered feebly, 'It w-was harder to break this time...'  
'Let's get these things off,' Grovyle said, gently pulling the little suction cups off her skin, 'I left a bit of a trail, the alarm could sound any s-'  
A siren wailed through the tower, a familiar voice shouting, 'All Sableye to Experimental Station 8, secure the prisoners! Repeat! All Sableye to ES8 immediately!'  
The human gave an involuntary whimper, ripping the rest of the electrodes off herself and jumping up to follow Grovyle, who had dashed to the door to check the corridor.  
Without a word he took her wrist and they plunged into the dark corridor directly in front of the narrow door, heading away from the double assault that was headed at them from either side. Now he was off track, desperately trying to recall the map of the tower Celebi had back at base. They had been brought underground, he was sure of it. They came across a set of stairs leading up and down, and Grovyle quickly started climbing, tugging the human after him. Several floors up he heard the first titter of the Sableye, who were beginning to swarm the stairs.  
One dropped from above at his feet, leaping up and trying to slash at his face. He kicked it away from him and shoved the human, backtracking to the previous floor, taking off down the only corridor. It was very short, and they ended up at the top of a crumbling stone dais in a high ceilinged room, the step off a dark, deep hole.  
The Sableye hadn't followed them. They could easily see why.  
A low menacing rumble growled up at them from the depths and glowing red eyes, ablaze with fury, began to rise to meet them.  
'Oh no...no no no, not _that_ ,' the human whimpered, backing up to the wall. Grovyle froze as Primal Dialga rose before him. His skin was a blotchy dark purple, and rivers of glowing orange _something_ snaked their way up and down his form. He let loose a roar that shook the entire tower, Grovyle and the human throwing their hands over their ears.  
Grovyle recovered first, snatching two reviver seeds out of the pouch at his waist.  
'Hold this,' he said, pushing one into the human's hand, 'Take a deep breath, Dialga's gonna-'  
Primal Dialga used Roar of Time!  
For a second, Grovyle felt like all his atoms where being torn apart, then it went black. Just for a second. He tossed away the now useless plain seed and climbed shakily to his feet. It hadn't worked for the human, who lay collapsed on the stone beside him, the reviver seed still in her hand.  
Grovyle quickly put it back in his bag and thrust his arms under the human's shoulders, dragging her back towards the corridor. Rather fall back into the Sableye's hands then face that again.  
'Go _recover_ them, cowards!' Dusknoir's voice roared. Grovyle gently let the human down, standing ready to fight the first wave of sableye, the bravest of which were beginning to trickle down the corridor. As they got close, however, a bright light burst between them, knocking them away.  
'An hour! You only had an hour and you managed to get in this much trouble?'  
Celebi turned to face Grovyle, hands on hips in exasperation.  
'Idiots! She's here! Get in there and bring them in! Only the leader needs to be kept alive!'  
'That's our cue, let's go,' Grovyle said, walking back over to the human. Celebi followed and took Grovyle's hand and the human's wrist and disappeared in another flash of light.

Grovyle and Celebi touched down inside their house, the human landing heavily beside them.  
'What happened?' Celebi asked, floating over to the human and beginning to heal her injuries.  
'We had a run in with Primal Dialga,' Grovyle answered simply, taking an apple down from a shelf.  
'Run in? Only had one reviver did you?'  
'No, I had two. Didn't work for it.'  
' _Her_ , Grovyle, be polite.'  
'Whatever, this venture has been more trouble than it's worth. I should've just broken in myself to steal whatever had the ability-'  
' _Rescue_ someone you mean.'  
'Rescue, sure. Regardless, this isn't the one we want, it's not even a pokemon!'  
'Maybe the pickup could've gone better-'  
Grovyle snorted rudely.  
'But we're going to have to work with what we have.'  
They both glanced at the human, who groaned slightly and rolled on her side. Grovyle rolled his eyes and left for his room, crunching on the apple. Celebi went to the wooden cupboard in the hall and pulled out their largest blanket, floating it over the human. It barely covered her torso, but her face relaxed all the same. Celebi smiled, and floated up to the library, which she was very proud of, and began compiling everything she could about humans.

'Did you know that humans used to catch pokemon?'  
A few hours had passed, and Grovyle had joined Celebi in the library. The human was still asleep in their living room. Celebi flipped the book she was reading around to face him.  
'Here, see? In these things,' she said, pointing at a faded picture of brightly coloured balls with a button in the centre.  
'Mm, fascinating,' Grovyle answered distractedly, not looking up from the world map sprawled on the table.  
'Celebi, have we been out to the centre of Dusk Forest yet?'  
'I don't think so, have you found something?'  
'Maybe, I read about this trio of-'  
Grovyle cut off at the sound of something heavy falling over in the living room. Celebi zipped down the stairs, Grovyle following behind her curiously.  
The human had knocked over one of the chairs and was trying to put it back neatly.  
'Hello!' Celebi said brightly, making her jump, 'We are-'  
'Celebi and Grovyle, leaders of the rebels,' the human said quietly, 'I've seen you before.'  
'Oh, really?' Celebi said, quickly glancing at Grovyle who just shrugged slightly, 'Did, uh, someone at the Tower tell you about us?'  
'S-sort of, I saw you in the lab,' she muttered, suddenly shy under their gaze, 'You were being tracked for visiting suspected T-Time Gear locations.'  
She saw them stiffen at her words, Grovyle looking particularly taken aback, and she shrunk a little further into the blanket.  
'S-sorry, I uh-'  
'What locations?'  
'Time G-Gears?'  
'How do you know about those?'  
'I-I saw them in the lab, I had to look for them.'  
'Look for them? How?'  
'With my Dimensional Scream, it only works-'  
'In relation to Time Gears!' Celebi cut across them both, clapping her hands together, 'And the presence of a trusted Pokemon partner! Amazing, isn't Grovyle? The one we needed is the one who came to us!'  
'Impossible, humans can't have abilities...can they?'  
'Obviously they can! Oh, this is going to make everything so much _easier_.'  
'I'm not so sure,' Grovyle said, eyeing the human suspiciously, who was watching their exchange incredulously, 'You said a trusted partner had to be present, and that would mean one of Dialga's lackeys. This is a trap!'  
'N-No! No, I would _n-never_ -'  
She cut off with a strangled gasp as Grovyle slashed her cheek. Celebi quickly dashed between them, throwing her arms wide.  
'Grovyle, I'm surprised at you, this is no way to treat a _guest_. What do you honestly think she could _do_?'  
Grovyle looked slightly ashamed at his outburst, but Celebi knew better then to expect an apology. She turned to the human and reached out to the cut. The human cringed away from her instinctively, but lowered her hand and let Celebi heal the gash.  
 _I know you were shaken by the run in with Dialga, Grovyle. It's no reason to lash out, she's just as scared as you are.  
_ Grovyle kept his mind blank and sat down in one of the chairs. Celebi took her hand away from the human's face, and she touched the spot gingerly.  
'Well, that's half the introductions anyway. What's your name dear?'  
The human glanced at Grovyle warily, 'My name's J-Jacey.'  
'Wonderful, and if you don't mind telling us, Jacey, who was your partner in the, uh, lab?'  
'My mother was,' she answered quietly, 'I'd been with her since I was...um-'  
'Your _what_? We meant your pokemon partner,' Grovyle cut in.  
'She...she _was_ a pokemon, they called her Ashura.'

'Jacey! Come _on_! We have what we needed from here, let's just-!'  
Jacey had opened another filing cabinet, marked 'E76-90' in messy script. She pulled out a file and stared at it, her hands shaking slightly.  
'Jace, the Sableye are coming, what...what is that?'  
'It's... it's...' she hugged the file to her chest, her eyes spilling over with tears.  
'It's mum's file.'  
'What!?'  
A siren drowned out their words, a nasally voice screaming over the loudspeaker, 'They're in the archives! Sections E through G! Bring them in without harming the research!'  
'Just bring it with us, come on!'  
Grovyle took her hand and dragged her with him toward the door. It was thrown open before they got there, framing Dusknoir and his posse of Sableye in dramatic light.  
'Get them! I don't care if we're bringing in corpses, just don't let them escape!'  
They retreated, passing the open filing cabinet and Jacey's abandoned metal stick. She snatched it up and turned to face them, tearing her wrist out of Grovyle's grip.  
'Come on then!' She cried, holding the file to her chest and swinging the heavy stick wildly. It connected with the first Sableye, sending it flying. The others slowed their progress.  
'Jacey! Not the time, let's _go!_ '  
'I swear to Arceus, if you made her _suffer-!'_ She hit another one, sending it careening into the one behind it.  
 _Celebi! Now might be a good time to get in here!_ Grovyle cried with his mind, hoping she was in earshot. Dusknoir had entered the fray, firing dark orbs in Jacey's direction. She dodged most of them, taking only one in the shoulder, and took a valiant swipe at Dusknoir. Her stick phazed right through the ghost type with little more than a shudder.  
Grovyle stepped up beside her, ready to fight, when Celebi burst into the room in a flash of light, sending the Sableye scurrying for cover and knocking Dusknoir backwards.  
'Finally! We need to leave!'  
'Have you got the information?'  
'Yes! Let's go before Dialga shows up.'  
Grovyle looked to where Jacey was recovering her stick, ready to beat Dusknoir into the ground.  
'And before _she_ kills someone.'  
Celebi floated over and grabbed Jacey's collar, beckoning Grovyle, who dashed up and took her hand as they fled in another flash of light.

They arrived back at the house, Celebi floating tiredly into a chair.  
'I can't keep saving you two like this,' she sighed, 'You don't understand how hard it is to teleport _three_ people.'  
'Bout time you got a workout,' Grovyle teased, 'that's the first time we've called on you in ages.'  
Jacey didn't respond, dropping into a nearby chair and staring at the file in her hands.  
'Here,' Grovyle said, handing Celebi the files he had picked up in the archives, 'every Time Gear location and guard rotations.'  
Celebi took them and flicked through them briefly.  
'I'll look over these and come up with a plan. Once we confirm these places we can start making preparations to go to the past.'  
She glanced up at where Jacey was sitting, the unopened file still in her lap.  
'What's that one?'  
Jacey didn't reply, gently easing the photo stuck to the front away from the folder.  
Grovyle looked over her shoulder at the picture, which showed a young Infernape with an ID card around her neck. Written neatly along the bottom was 'ASHURA; E84.'  
Jacey kept hold of it as she opened the folder slowly, afraid of what she might find inside.  
It was a few pages of neatly typed text in the same font, and a few other pictures. She read the card stuck to the side of the folder first.

 **SUMMARY OF E84**

 _Our first successful artificial ability generator has given us a Chimchar. We've named her Ashura, after the Unovian goddess of perseverance._

 _Our first field test was a failure. Ashura has not bonded with any staff and as such the Dimensional Scream has failed to manifest._

 _We have brought in many outsiders to try and 'make friends' with the child. None so far have been worthy or willing candidates, prolonging this endeavour. Perhaps we should start over._

 _Ashura evolved today. The ability has not disappeared, however it cannot manifest without a trusted partner. All further attempts to create a second pokemon with the generator have ended in failure, and the experiment still has not bonded to any staff. We are considering using one of the other experiments, to give them common ground, however it will muddle our and other teams' data._

 _There was no need to bring in another. Ashura has evolved and the ability has gone. However, the generator has been successful in producing another carrier of the Dimensional Scream, after we widened the parameters. It has produced a human child from fossils found on the eastern cliffs. Ashura has taken quite fondly to it. Further reports of this experiment can be found under 'E103.' Ashura named the child._

 _The child has shown great prowess under Ashura's direction. We have already identified several Time Gear locations. Ashura is no longer needed to manifest visions, one of our new staff can use hypnosis to create a sort of digital copy of Ashura. She will be moved to final archiving later this week._

 _Thus ends this brief chronicle of our first successfully generated ability. Further reading on the other topics in this article can be found in files E85 - 110 and G30 - 47._

Jacey quietly turned over the loose pages without reading them, her eyes shining with tears. She looked at the photographs stuck to the other side of the folder from the card, seeing her mother as a chimchar, held by a dreary-faced Drowzee in a lab coat. Another depicted Ashura after she had evolved, hooked up to a machine that showed her moves and the Dimensional Scream ability. She looked quite bored with the proceedings. The last photo saw her final evolution, and in her arms was a baby. Jacey.  
Grovyle glanced at Celebi, who had floated over to Jacey's other shoulder, and they shared a sad look as she quietly, reverently, closed the folder. They sat in silence for awhile before Jacey said, 'You don't need to confirm those places. I already have. Let's do this right now.'


End file.
